Eugene Debs – “On Socialism”

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This speech contains quotes from Eugene Debs’ speech at Canton Ohio, which was made after the USA entered World War I. Most of this speech was about socialism and only touched briefly on the military draft. Debs encouraged his listeners to believe that they were worth more than “cannon fodder.” This lead to Debs’ imprisonment on the grounds that he was encouraging people to evade the draft. The local federal prosecutor brought a lawsuit even thought the Department of Justice in Washington DC did not consider the case against Debs was very strong.